It's Quiet the £250m return

Quinny851 said:
As an out and out defender Akanji is arguably one of the best we have. The problem comes when Pep tries to push him into midfield and replicate what Stones does for us.
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John Stones is out best out and out defender as well as being the best at stepping forward. Unfortunately his body has let him down
 
Dazzle84 said:
John Stones is out best out and out defender as well as being the best at stepping forward. Unfortunately his body has let him down
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To be fair, I did say arguably because you can make a case for all of them. Dias on his day is world class, as is Ake & Gvardiol. John Stones, when fully fit, is the best defender in the world unfortunately we've only seen that in one season. Unsurprisingly, we won the treble on the back of it
 
Quinny851 said:
To be fair, I did say arguably because you can make a case for all of them. Dias on his day is world class, as is Ake & Gvardiol. John Stones, when fully fit, is the best defender in the world unfortunately we've only seen that in one season. Unsurprisingly, we won the treble on the back of it
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Yeah I wasn't really arguing against it, just one of my fairly regular statements of frustration about Stones' fitness worries.

I think we need to go with what good units look like - that's probably Dias and Gvardiol as the main two and then balance the full backs - if Ake then Nunes/Rico and if Ait-Nouri then Akanji. I. Very optimistic about the season though
 
oldius said:
I have a strong feeling that we will score a ton of goals this season, and it will mitigate the conceding of more than our normal level. I believe that a forward line of Haaland, Foden, Cherki, Bobb, Savinho, and Doku is going to do BITS!
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I hope your right, but half of them players scored about 5 goals for us last season combined, is Foden over his issues? Cherki is new and is he even going to play as much as we expect? Hopefully he is in the 11 from the start as I’m excited about Cherki.
 
ProofMCFC said:
I hope your right, but half of them players scored about 5 goals for us last season combined, is Foden over his issues? Cherki is new and is he even going to play as much as we expect? Hopefully he is in the 11 from the start as I’m excited about Cherki.
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I believe I am!!
We have to remember how young they all are. There was a malaise last year, we know this, but the whiteboard is wiped clean and fresh, and a fresh start upon us all.
 
oldius said:
Yes. A fit Stones is a world-class performer and can be a huge difference-maker in his final season with us, assuming he stays.
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agreed. Its such a shame about his injuries. He is genuinely world class in all aspects of the game. He stays fit I belive we have a genuine chance at winning the league (for me he is nearly as important as Rodri) - however how likely is that?
 
Kippax Kidd said:
I don't think any more signings are needed.

Bernardo RW with a pivot of Gundo and Kovacic with Nunes/Rico rotating as first choice RB .
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Yep we just need to hope no one gets injured. Should be enough to attack Liverpool next season
 
If there are to be no new signings, then fair enough, but we go into the season with a nagging question over the fitness of our most significant player as well as nagging questions over the fitness of two central defenders (6 international fixtures for England and the Netherlands before Christmas); we also know we will lose Ait-Nouri and Marmoush for maybe 6-8 games. With two midfielders new to the League and one midfielder returning with no pre-season, Silva and Gundogan are going to feature more than some might like, but that feels almost inevitable. We can ill afford an injury to either of them.
 
Gumzy97 said:
Stones saying that for the first time in 2 seasons he feels very good and ready to go. I hope that's true and he doesn't have a start stop season again. He's done so much for the club integral in league wins and the champions league win.

He is our best centre back. That interview he did before the club world cup where he said his injuries were frustrating and the medical staff couldn't explain why. Just felt sorry for him the way he was decribing how low he felt, he wants to play but his body is just breaking down.
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Agreed - but its a huge risk by the club placing our hopes on a player whose injury record is noting short of atrocious..
Thats why Ive been saying all along we need an experienced centre half as clearly Reis aint ready if there is all this talk of loans...

As ive just posted in response to another poster, the only other viable soultion is to drop Dias and put Khusonov at centre half (or play Khusonov at fullback - which means we lose somethign going forward with that) and there is no way he will drop Dias as there is limited experience then
 
Gabriel said:
If there are to be no new signings, then fair enough, but we go into the season with a nagging question over the fitness of our most significant player as well as nagging questions over the fitness of two central defenders (6 international fixtures for England and the Netherlands before Christmas); we also know we will lose Ait-Nouri and Marmoush for maybe 6-8 games. With two midfielders new to the League and one midfielder returning with no pre-season, Silva and Gundogan are going to feature more than some might like, but that feels almost inevitable. We can ill afford an injury to either of them.
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Yup
You just know both Stones and Ake go away with the international teams and return with an injury - its literally like clockwork.
 
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